Keep in Touch

This is by far my favorite time of year … not so much the weather (snow sucks period the end), but it’s when all the new, hottest toys for 2017/2018 are released and I get to touch, feel, test/play and best of all I get to share my top favorites with everyone and offer some REALLY great giveways … WOOHOO!!!

What I want everyone to know most importantly is that I have NOT been paid to review any of these toys. I am simply receiving the products for my kids to test out and those that we think are great are included in my post. Now we have gotten that out of the way, let’s begin!

This is 100% the toy of the year!!!! I can’t tell you who had more fun with this toy, my kids or me?! The product does not require any kind of battery (added bonus) and has minimal assembly. If I have one piece of advice for this toy, I would highly recommend reading the directions as to how to make the Oonies before showing your kids because once they see it they will attack it (speaking from experience). What I loved about this is that there are so many applications for Oonies. My mini (who is 4) spent over an hour creating little creatures many of which he brought to bed with him and my older son (who is 7) was playing a game throwing them at windows and those that stuck would get a point. The balloons have a film on them that makes them stick to each other and comes with all sorts of accessories to put feet, ears, arms, eyes, noses, mouths etc and use your imagination to create fun creatures. If you wondering what happens when you run out of the little balloon beads, you can buy refill packs.

This is probably one of the funniest games I have played to date with my family! My kids were legitimately belly laughing because of how funny both my big guy and I looked and talked when we had the mouth piece in. I couldn’t stop laughing because at the end of his turn his shirt was wet from drooling so much (i’m even laughing writing this). Each game comes with child size and adult sized mouth pieces, child and adult cards which are phrases that you each have to guess and a timer. Guess the phrase right and you get a card! The person with the most cards at the end wins … it’s just that easy!

Where to Buy: Amazon.ca
Price: $13.88 ON SALE (they even offer Prime shipping)

Spinners are the biggest craze right now and they certainly have come a long way since the first one came out! Yes I get it, a spinner is a spinner is a spinner, BUT these one’s were actually really cool! Not only can you get them with patterned lights, but you can stack them and create crazy light shows with them and test your true ability to be a spin-master. What’s the difference: Spin Circuits have over 20 different cool light patterns, Spinzipz has only two arms and a single pattern of light and Spinbladez has multi-colour lights but when combined with the Spinzipz using the included double sided spin pin, they make a mesmerizing light show. I have to say the Spin Circuit was mesmerizing and somehow quite calming (weird), maybe every parent should have one of these! 😉

Go big or go home! Well I wasn’t wrong about this toy, I had a feeling my mini (who is superhero obsessed) would go mental over this and I was not incorrect. This is the ultimate Spider-man city where Spider-man can hang from a crane, climb up and down ladders, go through secret doorways and swing down around a building. Two major things to note here: the city does NOT come with a Spider-man which was not a big deal for us because I feel like I have a million of them (make sure to buy a mini one if you don’t already have one in the house) and it comes unassembled with A LOT of parts! I did not find this hard to put together as the parts are all numbered and the directions were straight forward, but if you are going to give this as a gift, I would recommend putting it together at night and putting a bow on it for the morning. This was a big win in my house!

This is the ultimate DVD gift pack that was just released in time for the holidays! 56 Episodes on 10 DVDs – that’s every mini fan’s dream in 1 location. Need a few minutes to yourself (or 13 hours), grab a disc, pop it into the DVD player, grab a coffee and put your feet up. These are episodes my mini hasn’t seen before, so needless to say he was quite excited.

Yes this game is as cool as it looks!!! I have to give it to Hasbro, this is probably one of the most unique games I/we have ever played! If you child loves music than this is definitely something you want to get for him/her. I like to think of this as the modern day turntable where you can mix up songs and add beats by adding and exchanging cards. There are three ways to play this: freestyle, clash and party .. we have only tried freestyle so I can’t comment on the others, but for the younger one’s this is probably the best route to go. Download the FREE DropMix app, take the tour to learn how the game works and start mixing it up. Songs include: Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Imagine Dragons, Sia, The Weeknd and many more. It starts with you laying down the first card which will be your base song. Each card has a colour in the top left and you want to correspond that colour with the colour on the board (don’t worry for the little one’s if they don’t follow that, they just love that they are their own dj and making the mixes on their own). It is recommended for ages 16+, but my son who is 7 had the best time playing with this and brings it out for all his play-dates.

Batteries are NOT included … I repeat NOT included so make sure you have some handy.

Where to Buy: Amazon.ca (bonus it offers Prime) or Toys R Us
Price: $99.97 (it’s on sale right now from $129.99)

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Beados Teeneez #GIVEAWAY

A true instance where you don’t judge a book by it’s cover! Although the packaging is geared toward girls, my older son had fun making designs with these (he made one for his girlfriend at school). Now I don’t recommend these for younger kids as the beads are Teeny and would be very hard for their little hands, but the older kids would definitely love this. There are different packages to choose from: Teenez 4 Colour Pen Starter Pack, Teenez Designer Studio and Teenez Refill Pack. Each pack comes with little design sheets to put under the plastic bead casing and an assortment of coloured beads. No oven necessary, just spray the made design with water, wait 20 minutes and its good to go. You can make jewelry (comes with a bracelet to attach designs to) or for the boys make something to hang off your bag or give to someone else.

Tonka Tinys Rescue Response Playset
Great for little hands, Tonka Tinys Rescue Response Playset brings kids imaginations to life and best of all at their level! Launch the trucks down 1 of 4 ramps (one of which is the ultimate gravity ramp that makes your truck fly) and store the little trucks in the garage storage so there are no lost pieces and tears over not finding them! You will be happy to hear there is very little assembly which is always helpful 🙂

Where to Buy: Toys R Us and Walmart.ca
Price: $39.99

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Zuru Mayka Tape

Here’s a neat concept! It’s tape that you can cut and shape into anything you want it to be and is compatible with Lego products. We like to build cars with our Lego in my house, so why not make a really cool ramp or city with your Mayka tape or if your kiddos are true Lego fans, you can make their room into a cool Lego city by adhering the tape to their walls and attaching their Lego designs to it. Cool right?! You can see how my imagination has blown up with this one.

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I can not say enough good things about this product, honestly!! This was a product I was not sent to test, I purchased this a while back as I heard great things and they were certainly not wrong! This is one of those games that are educational through the parents eyes, but just a really fun toy through the child’s eyes – I like to call that a win-win for all. I purchased the genius kit which included the base and mirror for the iPad, a Numbers game, a Word game and a Tangram game. Additionally, I purchased what happens to be my kids favorite game of all, the Monster game where your little one can choose what he/she wants to draw (it offers you categories) on the included creative board (set comes with bright coloured erasable chalk markers and a big pouch which you use as the eraser). Osmo Monster brings it life by “pick it up” and magically puts it on the screen with him and roll plays with it, take a look at the picture below! The kids REALLY got a kick out of this (frankly so did I). I recently bought Coding Awbie which is a coding game. You direct Awbie using the physical coding command blocks and direct him on the strawberry eating adventure. I truly think this is one of the best toys you could buy your child this holiday season!
Where to Buy: Amazon.ca
Price: Normally $129.99 (prime) but right now my link shows $99.99 on SALE!

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Operation Escape Game #GIVEAWAY
Have you ever done an escape room? If you have, how much did you have! If you haven’t here’s a chance to play a fun game with your older kids while getting the child version of an escape room?! You are given 3 tasks and you have to complete them (even more fun with 4+ people) in order to get the captured player free before the timer runs out. The other thing I think is great about this game is that there are different levels of difficulty, so if you think it’s too easy … try again buy upping your level allowing you to play multiple times. This is definitely a game for kids 6+ and also something fun for the kids to do when you have a play date over.
Where to Buy: Toys R Us (don’t use Amazon for this one – it’s crazy expensive)
Price: $39.99a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Little Live Pets

Do your kids bug you constantly for a pet??? It seems to be a common theme in my house, at least once a week one of my kids are asking me for a pet so this was the perfect toy to give them! Meet Lollipop, he is our new bird (we also have a white one named Hatchy not pictured here, he didn’t like the camera). Want to know what’s so wonderful about these pets, they walk around, don’t poop on the floor and when you are done with them, just flick the switch to “off” – BEST PET EVER! You can buy the birds separate, however each habitat/cage comes with one, hold it in your hand and the egg opens to reveal your new bird friend.

If you have a Disney fan out there and need a little stocking stuffer, here is a great idea! These cute collectibles offer over 100 characters (from Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, Mickey Mouse and Friends, Lion King, Toy Story, Finding Nemo and more) and the fun part about the chat bubbles is that you don’t know what you are getting so it makes it even more exciting for your little one’s (my mini has an obsession with blind bags lately). We talk in emoticons so why wouldn’t our little one’s! Two f the packs have a hidden surprise character.